Biagioni acquitted in baseball bat killing

A Sacramento Superior Court jury Thursday acquitted Brandon Biagioni of murder charges in the baseball bat beating death of a 62-year-old man last year in an Orangevale garage, court officials said.

The panel returned the verdict late in the afternoon in Judge Robert Twiss’ courtroom after less than a day of deliberations. The decision took place in a retrial for Biagioni, 33, following a murder trial earlier this year that resulted in a hung jury.

Biagioni testified in both trials that he “clipped” the victim, James Marlow, in the June 6, 2013, incident on Pershing Avenue during a struggle over the bat. Biagioni said Marlow tried to attack him with it in an effort to get him out of the garage of a house owned by a woman who had allowed Biagioni to stay there in the past.

“The jury was unconvinced that Brandon’s behavior was the cause of the death and they had serious questions about the victim’s behavior, and they felt he acted in self defense,” defense attorney Pete Harned said after the verdict. Harned said the jury’s vote on the first trial was 11-1, for not guilty.